Dunnage conversion machines convert a stock material into a dunnage product that can be used to pack articles and thus minimize or prevent damage during shipment. The dunnage conversion machines, also referred to as dunnage converters, include a conversion assembly that converts a stock material into a relatively lower density dunnage product as the stock material moves through the conversion assembly from an upstream end toward an outlet at a downstream end.
At the upstream end of the converter, a supply of stock material is fed into the conversion assembly. The stock material typically is stored adjacent the conversion assembly, which consumes the stock material as it produces strips of dunnage from which dunnage products are severed. When the converter is deployed underneath a table or other work surface, keeping the stock material under the table keeps it out of the way, but makes replenishing the stock material difficult.
At the downstream end, dunnage conversion machines often include an output chute secured to the housing or frame of the converter to guide dunnage products away from the outlet. The output chute supports and guides the dunnage products and can prevent the exiting dunnage products from causing jams in the conversion assembly. A typical dunnage product has a length of about twenty to about seventy centimeters. If a dunnage product does not exit the output chute on its own, a subsequent dunnage product typically will push it out of the chute.
A wrappable dunnage product may be advantageous for layering, including placement between relatively flat items such as plates, and/or for individually wrapping articles such as fragile ornaments, glass lamps, or the wooden legs on fine furniture, to minimize or prevent damage during shipment. Not all dunnage is suitable for use as a wrapping product, however. Some dunnage products in pad form, for example, can be too narrow and/or stiff to be used effectively as a protective wrapping product.
Existing wrappable dunnage products include foldable cardboard and plastic bubble wrap. Unfortunately, both take up a lot space for storage until ready to use. Cardboard typically has a sinusoidal, regularly undulating ply glued to one or more generally planar plies. Some cardboard is made using pleating rollers that extend across the width of a sheet to form the regular sinusoidal shape as the sheet passes between the rollers. These pleating rollers are very expensive to make. Cardboard also is difficult to produce on demand since the glue holding the layers together has to dry before use. Therefore, on-demand conversion of a stock material into a cardboard-like wrapping dunnage product probably is not practical.
Unlike cardboard, plastic bubble wrap can be made on demand, but the process is very slow (generally about nine meters per minute, compared to about twenty meters per minute for some converters that produce paper dunnage) and its speed is limited by the nature in which bubble wrap is made. Additionally, plastic is increasingly expensive, as well as increasingly being seen as bad for the environment.